ALBANY -- When Rotterdam resident -- and Troy native -- Dan Nugent suffered the early stages of a stroke last March, he had no prior history of heart or artery issues.

Nugent, now 68, led a healthy lifestyle which included working out at the gym a few times a week and eating a heart-healthy diet. But sometime after he fell asleep the night of March 29, 2012, a blood clot made its way to his brain. Nugent's wife, Susan, awoke in the middle of the night to feel him thrashing against the sheets and hear him muttering unintelligibly. It didn't take her long to realize her husband was in a catatonic state.

"Around 3 a.m. something woke me up," she recalled. "He was tossing and turning and saying things I couldn't understand. I pushed on him a few times but he didn't respond. I got up and put on the light and it was then that I figured out something was very wrong -- that I couldn't wake him up."

Terrified, Susan quickly called 911 and an ambulance was dispatched to their Putnam Road home. Nugent was initially transported to Ellis Hospital but physicians there advised that he be airlifted to Albany Medical Center Hospital -- the only hospital in the region certified as a stroke center. The extent of damage was hard to assess without knowing exactly when the clot formed.

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"The doctors at Ellis told me that without knowing how long he'd been (in this state) further testing and delaying treatment could potentially harm him. They told me that Albany Medical Center had a new treatment for stroke patients and I felt like it was his best chance for survival," Susan said.

Upon arrival at Albany Med, Nugent's doctors assessed his condition and recommended "Solitaire," the new procedure to remove blood clots that Ellis physicians had talked about.

In fact, Nugent would become the first patient at Albany Med to undergo the Solitaire procedure, which had only just received approval from the Food and Drug Administration earlier that month.

A breakthrough procedure to remove blood clots from the brain, Solitaire is only available locally at Albany Medical Center. It is the newest generation of clot-removing tools, according to physician Alan Boulos, endovascular neurosurgeon and chief of the Division of Neurosurgery.

According to Boulos, 42, in cases of ischemic stroke (the most common type of stroke), the artery supplying the brain with blood is occluded or obstructed by the blood clot. Using a catheter-based approach and the device, "Solitaire," the clot can often be expediently and successfully removed. This can help in some cases to reverse the symptoms of stroke. However, in some cases, even if the blood clot is removed, the patient may still suffer a stroke because the procedure was performed too late. As with any treatment, there are risks associated with the device. It can cause bleeding in the brain or may not be successful in opening the artery, he said.

"In Mr. Nugent's case (who woke up with stroke symptoms), his imaging, a CT perfusion scan, showed that the stroke was not yet completed, therefore, there was a good possibility of reversing his symptoms if the clot could be removed safely. We then chose to use the "Solitaire" device to remove the clot because it has a high likelihood of removing the clot in a rapid time period with little risk of vessel injury."

Stroke is the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S., according to The American Heart Association.

Clinical studies have shown that patients treated with "Solitaire" have higher rates of brain function and reduced death from stroke three months after the procedure, compared to patients treated with earlier clot-retrieval devices, according to information provided by Albany Medical Center.

Additionally, an article titled "New Mechanical Clot-Remover Highly Effective in Stroke Trial," published Aug. 27, 2012 in Medical News Today, Solitaire -- a device made by Covidien, a global company with corporate headquarters in Plymouth, Minn. -- performed so well that the safety committee overseeing its trial cut short its review a year early.

The Solitaire Flow Restoration (FR) Revascularization device, as it's referred to by the medical and scientific communities, is one of a generation of new tools designed to remove blood clots from blocked brain arteries in patients with an ischemic stroke.

"Solitaire is a self-expanding stent made with thin curvy wires. The procedure resembles a miniscule fishing expedition that uses the new tool like a net to capture and remove the blood clot," the article states. "The surgeon inserts the device into the blocked artery using a thin catheter tube. Once inside, the tool emerges, compresses and traps the clot, and the surgeon pulls it back through the catheter and withdraws, reopening the blocked blood vessel in the process."

Currently, a total of 15 patients have benefited from the Solitaire clot-removal system at Albany Medical Center. AMC is reportedly one of 13 hospitals statewide certified by both the state Department of Health as a Stroke Center and by the Joint Commission as a Primary Stroke Center garnering the organization's Gold Seal of Approval.

The procedure is not recommended for every blood-clot or stroke patient. Physicians consider several key factors when deciding to remove the blood clot in cases of ischemic stroke. The major factor is the time of onset of the stroke to the time of treatment.

"If it is less than four hours, then intravenous clot-busting medication can be given," Boulos said. "If the clot-busting drug does not work then the endovascular procedure "Solitaire" could be performed to remove the clot within six hours of symptom onset. In patients who come after four hours or wake up with stroke symptoms, then we do sophisticated imaging in the Emergency Room; either a CT scan or MRI to determine if the stroke can still be reversed."

If the imaging demonstrates that the stroke is not yet complete then the endovascular procedure to remove the clot can be performed to improve the patient's symptoms. However, if there is already evidence that the stroke is completed, then the procedure carries more risk for bleeding and the likelihood of improving the patient's symptoms decreases.

"In that scenario, no endovascular treatment is better than trying to remove the clot," Boulos said.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, 65, recently suffered a blood clot that didn't progress to a stroke. Boulos discussed how her blood clot differed from Nugent's.

"The Solitaire device can be used to remove blood clots from the venous channels in the brain," Boulos said. "This is the condition that Secretary Clinton suffered from. In her case, Solitaire was not performed because there was no evidence of brain injury from the blood clot in the transverse sinus (venous structure of the brain). Therefore, she did not need the procedure and medical treatment with warfarin was likely best for her."

Susan doesn't pretend to understand the medical science that improved her husband's chances of survival. She is just grateful that Dr. Boulos and his colleagues were there to treat him and to help him get a second chance at life.

"He does seem to get tired sooner than he used to, and we know that he may not ever be the same as he was before the blood clot but we're thankful he's here," said Susan, who is 18 years younger than her husband. "We're just so grateful that Dr. Boulos and the team at Albany Medical Center were there for us. I just can't say enough about how wonderful they all were to us."

For Nugent, his recovery has been slow but steady. He is grateful not to have suffered any serious long-term effects or disabilities but admits that his confidence has been shaken.

"I now feel about 90 percent of my former self," he said. "I had developed something called cold shoulder after the procedure. I lost the use of my shoulder for a while, but it's fine now. I am back to working out a couple times a week but when I do I'm kind of afraid to push myself. I've lost some of my self-confidence."

Nugent didn't have any real warning or suffer any tell-tale symptoms the night he had the stroke. Even though he doesn't recall much about that night overall, he does remember seeing a bright flash in his eyes sometime after he had dinner and before he turned into bed, which was around midnight.

Early treatment for stroke symptoms is critical, Boulos said.

Stroke Symptoms Include:

Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body

Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding;

Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes

Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination, and

Sudden, severe headache with no known cause

U.S. Stroke Facts:

Stroke kills almost 130,000 Americans each year--that's 1 in every 18 deaths.

On average, one American dies from stroke every 4 minutes.

Every year, more than 795,000 people in the United States have a stroke. About 610,000 of these are first or new strokes. One in four are recurrent strokes.

Ischemic strokes happen when blood clots block the blood vessels to the brain. About 87 percent of all strokes are ischemic.

Stroke costs the United States an estimated $54 billion each year. This total includes the cost of health care services, medications, and missed days of work.